Popsicle Stick Catapult for Kids STEM Activity

Who knew STEM could be so much fun? We did! Making a popsicle stick catapult is an awesome STEM activity for kids of all ages! Exploring physics has never been so exciting for kids because everyone loves to launch stuff into the air. A craft stick catapult is the perfect screen free and budget friendly,STEM activity any time of the year! Make sure to grab some marshmallows too!

MAKE A COOL POPSICLE STICK CATAPULT FOR KIDS STEM!

2 Simple Popsicle Stick Catapult Ideas to Build at Home

These popsicle stick catapults make a great STEM activity! We used technology to assist us in building our simple catapults. We used math to determine the supplies needed to build the catapults.

We used our engineering skills to actually build the popsicle stick catapults. We used science to test how far the catapults flung the items we chose.

Which popsicle stick catapult fired the farthest? Great start to finish STEM activity with simple physics science play at the end!

Which will fly the farthest! Make predictions and test results. Why does one fly farther than the other? Read more about the science behind the catapult and simple way to create a catapult science experiment below!

POPSICLE STICK CATAPULT WITH RUBBER BANDS

This is a simple and quick popsicle stick catapult using just two supplies. The directions are clear. Please make sure an adult helps with making the grooves in the popsicle sticks. This requires a knife. Great practice winding rubber bands and counting out materials needed!

You can easily set up an experiment by testing different weighted items to see which ones fly farther. Adding a measuring tape encourages simple math concepts that my 2nd grader is just really starting to explore.

Always start out asking a question to come up with a hypothesis. Which item will go farther? I think ______ will go farther. Why? Have fun setting up a catapult to test the theory! Can you design a different catapult?

This is an awesome way to reinforce what he is learning with a super fun activity. Additionally, you can encourage older kids to record the data from measuring all the launches.

Have your kids fire each material {such as a candy pumpkin, plastic spider or eyeball} 10 times and record the distance each time. What kinds of conclusions can they draw from the information gathered? Which item worked the best? Which item didn’t work well at all.

You can also test out the amount of popsicle sticks used in the stack to create the tension need to launch the catapult. How about 6 or 10! What are the differences when tested?

POPSICLE STICK CATAPULT WITH BINDER CLIPS AND ZIP TIES

Here’s our second popsicle stick catapult which may need more adult help, but it still quick! Gathering materials, counting materials, and following along is part of the learning process. He helped me start the zip ties and pointed to where they should go on the catapult. For this one we hot glued a bottle cap!

First off this is a great simple physics activity for kids of multiple ages. What is there to explore that has to do with physics? Let’s start with energy including elastic potential energy. You can also learn about projectile motion.

You can talk about stored energy or potential elastic energy as you pull back on the popsicle stick, bending it. When you release the stick all that potential energy is released into energy in motion producing the projectile motion.

A catapult is a simple machine that has been around for ages. Have your kids dig up a little history and research when the first catapults were invented and used! Hint check out the 17th century!

That’s too bad you feel that way. I think it’s great for testing predictions with different weighted objects. It makes a great screen free activity where kids can design and engineer their own catapults from their own designs.

I have taught this lesson many times in middle school gifted classes. Its more about teaching collaboration and the engineering design process. Hold the students accountable to recording their data and iterations. Its good science regardless of what others might believe.

That’s not true. STEM incorporates Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths. The children will, without realising, be developing all of these skills plus language, communication and teamwork skills if they are working with a partner/ parent.